Saying it was a victim of "serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations" by a British software company it acquired last year, tech titan Hewlett-Packard just announced it erased $8.8 billion from its books last quarter to properly account for the acquisition.

"The decision to pay $10 billion for Autonomy was criticized earlier this year after HP reported 'very disappointing' revenues for the enterprise search company in its April quarter. This resulted in [CEO Mike] Lynch leaving HP. HP announced an $8 billion writedown in August in its services division, made up largely of its $14 billion EDS acquisition of 2008."

HP has "contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division and the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office," the FT says.